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The Ten Commandments of The American Religion

This is a cross-post from James Altucher‘s blog Altucher Confidential. His previous appearances on the Freakonomics blog can be found here.

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If I stood in the center of Times Square and said something like “Moses didn’t really part the Red Sea,” or “Jesus never existed,” people would probably keep walking around me, ignoring what I said.

But if I stood there and said, “Going to college is the worst sin you can force your kids to commit,” or “You should never vote again,” or “Never own a home,” people would probably stop, and maybe I‘d lynched. But I would’ve at least gotten their attention. How? By knocking down a few of the basic tenets of what I call the American Religion.

It’s a fickle and false religion, used to replace the ideologies we (a country of immigrants) escaped. Random high priests lurk all over the Internet, ready to pounce. Below are the Ten Commandments of the American Religion, as I see them. If you think there are more, list them in the comments.

#1 Thou Shalt Own a Home. The American Religion wants you to have a home with a white picket fence. Why would the high priests of the American religion want that? A couple reasons:

So that you owe the banks money for 30 years or more (after second, third, or fourth mortgages). The banks need to borrow from your checking account at 0.5% to be able to lend right back to you at 8%. That’s how they make money and it’s one of the largest industries in the world.

Also, owning a home makes you less flexible in terms of where you can move. The job market is ruled by supply and demand. Supply of jobs in an area is finite. So they want to make sure you can’t move so quickly so that demand only goes up.

#2 Thou Shalt Go to College. There’s the myth that going to college leads to a better life, or a “promised future.” Almost like how the contract Abraham had with God would lead to Judaism being a group of “chosen people.” A couple of points:

Statistically, there’s no proof that smart, ambitious, aggressive people won’t benefit enormously from a five-year head start against their peers who choose to spend five years doing homework and drinking beer and going to frat parties. And don’t quote me the stat about the differences in salaries between college grads and non-college grads because there’s enormous selection bias in that stat and it’s like comparing apples and oranges right now.

The government needs to pay off $74 trillion in Social Security in the next 50 years. They have to make money somehow, so student loan debt is now higher than credit card debt for the first time in 50 years. Imagine that: we send our children off to college and then 5 years later (the average time spent in college by those who graduate) they come out owing the government $100,000. Thank God the government gets to exploit our kids so they can pay off the promises they made under Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War.

There are so many exciting alternatives to college. I list some of them here. I’m excited for my children, because I hope they have experiences that will change their lives forever rather than going into the rat race so they can end up ignorant, in debt, and working at nonsense jobs so they can pay off the gangsters who have guns pointed right at their heads.

One anecdote: the guy who caught Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit is a sales clerk at Verizon with $150,000 in student loans. Why couldn’t he get a better job with his college degree? Why did he give Jeter the ball back? Jeter is going to make $100 million in the next few years. This guy could’ve paid his loans back and been free. Freedom is everything. But he wanted to be a “good guy.”

The American Religion needs you to be in debt; needs you to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to read the same Plato you could’ve read in the bathroom at your local library. “You’ll have a better life,” they say. “Your life is secure now.” Right, you are fully secured by the shackles they hand you on graduation day.

#3 Thou Shalt Recognize that Some Wars Are Holy. Everyone argued with me in my post about “Name me a war that was worth it.” Apparently some wars are “holy” and can’t be argued against. All I want is to prevent 18 year-olds from dying. That’s the basis of my argument. We can argue all the history we want after that.

#4 Thou Shalt Obey the Constitution. There’s no document more sacred (as it should be) in the American Religion. And yet, just as the principles of the Bible are often forgotten by its highest adherents, ditto goes twice over for the U.S. constitution. For instance, who has the power to declare war? The House of Representatives according to the Constitution. The House hasn’t declared war on anyone since 1941. The U.S. Constitution is the Holy of Holies in the American Religion. Until those moments when we break the rules. Then everyone looks the other way. “We had to do it that way,” goes the common refrain. “To protect our way of life.” Someone is always protecting me and my way of life. I’m fine thank you.

#5Thou Shalt Give to Charity. Because the American Religion, unlike most religions, doesn’t have a strict code of ethics, giving to charity is often considered the sign of a “good person.” A couple of points on that:

Giving to charity costs money. So the best people in the American Religion then are the ones who have the most money to give.

Volunteering is more and more difficult for people who have to pay back student loans and exorbitant home loans. Good luck volunteering when your children need to be fed or when you are an indentured servant thanks to your advanced learning in the ivory tower.

Let’s go over the math of every dollar you spend on charity. When you give $100 to a major charity, most of that goes into the bank. They then invest the money. On the interest they make on their investments, a percentage goes to actual charity, another percentage goes to salaries. So for every dollar you give to charity, about 2 cents a year, give or take, goes to the actual charitable cause you wanted to support. Now let’s break that down even further. How many charities have executives making over $500,000 a year. More than a few. And let’s say it’s a medical charity. Now most of the money is going toward drugs that cost billions of dollars to approve. See the next point.

#6Thou Shalt Obey the Food & Drug Administration. What is this organization? And does it do any good? The FDA requires that drugs go through trials to prove their safety and effectiveness. That sounds good, right? Before you give an 80 year-old a drug for cancer, let’s make sure it doesn’t kill him first.

It costs billions to build those trials and the FDA can shut you down at any point. Companies raise those billions from charities and from individual investors, who usually lose all of their money when the FDA shuts down a trial. But what’s the solution?

Well, we have the Internet now. We have social media. We have “word of mouth” on steroids. That’s what technology and innovation is for. Lets get the drugs out there. We can all see which scientists worked on them and what their backgrounds are, we can all read the patents, we can read real-life experiences from people using the drug. The Internet will conduct “virtual trials.” Will people die? Yeah, but people die in FDA trials too. Will more lives be saved? Of course! Many drug companies just give up (they can’t raise the money even if their drugs are miracle drugs). Now they can get those drugs out there and we can really see. If I have a terminal disease, I want the FDA to get out of the way and let me ingest whatever I want.

I live in New York. So I know my vote is meaningless no matter which way I vote. And I’m tired of voting for congressmen who supposedly represent my interests, but then make deals with lobbyists and other congressmen for bridges to nowhere, and then get hired as vice-chairmen of Goldman Sachs when they “retire” after years of “public” service. I’m fine representing my own interests and I’d rather vote directly on issues.

So why can’t I vote on the Internet? I can read all about the issues there. I could vote directly on bills, presidents, wars, drugs, whatever I want. If I could vote directly on issues, instead of sending a “representative” in my place, the costs of lobbying would go from the millions to the billions, which would deter the corrupt lobbying industry and further give more power to the people. And then, maybe things would actually get done in this country. In the article below I explain why all the initial reasons for the legislative branch (as it stands now) are obsolete. And the beauty of the U.S. Constitution is that it can change.

#8Thou Shalt Choose Between Two Political Parties. We’ve basically had two parties for the past 200 years. With occasional offshoots. I don’t believe in either party. And I bet a lot of you don’t either. It’s all a way for a select few to push through an agenda that is going to change constantly over the years anyway. This is not a new opinion. Most people hate the two-party system. So let’s change it.

Again, with the Internet, I’d rather be a party of one and just vote for what I want on every issue. I’m perfectly willing to read about the issues of the day and vote directly. I don’t need to have my congressman represent me. How many ethics scandals are going on in Washington right now? And, how many should be going on that we don’t even know about?

#9Thou Shalt Recognize the Media as the “Fourth Estate.” There’s this weird idea that’s developed over the past 50 years that the media is somehow a “check” on the other three branches of government. This is ridiculous but people still don’t get it.

Six months ago everyone was panicking that radiation from Japan was going to get blown over San Francisco. Did that happen? Of course not. But the media doesn’t apologize for the thousands of people who got sick taking iodine pills, or who spent weeks away from supposedly radioactive areas.

And let’s not forget the whole “debt ceiling scare.” Every week there’s a new fear. I obviously don’t think the media should be shut down. But there certainly should be a greater sense of responsibility than simply scaring the hell out of people with a new topic every. single. week. I am so bored of the “fear of the week,” I’d rather watch Snooki all day long rather than another “fear of the week” analysis from the pseudo-experts who are desperate for screen time.

#10 Thou Shalt Forever Progress Toward the Frontier. My kid had to read about Lewis And Clark this summer as she prepared to go into the fourth grade. The “frontier” is a beautiful, almost spiritual concept. The idea that we can always expand, always improve. For the first several hundred years after the Europeans took over North America, we expanded into every unmapped territory. But then something went wrong.

We’re missing out on the more subtle points of the word “Frontier.” For the past several decades we’ve expanded into the frontier of technology, creating everything from computers, to rockets that go to the moon, to the Internet, and many cures for many diseases (polio, smallpox, etc). But now our innovators, technologists, and creators have to pay down their homeowner debt, their credit card debt, their student loan debt. They have to vote for people who never truly represent them and get us further and further into trouble. The government puts more and more hurdles in front of our creators.

Who knows what further twists and warps the American Religion will take to destroy us more than we’ve already been destroyed. At the end of the physical frontier is the ocean and we’re all being pushed into it.

I love this country. But I get sad when I see all of the above. When 18 year-olds are sent to get killed while 60 year-olds can’t get the drugs they need to survive. Where the government and banks and even charities take all my money. Where commercialism in its worst form conspires to take the remaining dollars of my salary.

I’m not political. I’m not in any party, nor do I believe in any particular political philosophy. For me, I believe in the impossible. That change, even at a mass level, only comes from the inside of each individual. That if each person tries to remain physically healthy, emotionally healthy, mentally healthy, and spiritually healthy, then the country itself will rise to new heights never seen before in the civilization of man.

A height without mythology, without the dream of immortality, without fantasy notions of a “better life” that turn out to be just lies. Without deeper and more complicated mechanisms to control the masses. Where mediocrity is not rewarded with power over the creators. I know, I’m asking for too much.

So today I’m going to do what I always do. And it has nothing to do with anything in this article.

Greg

September 28, 2011 @ 10:19pm

"Before you give an 80 year-old a drug for cancer, let’s make sure it doesn’t kill him first." - Exactly, because younger people never get cancer.

"we send our children off to college and then 5 years later (the average time spent in college by those who graduate) they come out owing the government $100,000." - Exactly, because the $100,000 figure you invented at the end of the sentence must be a typical debt, since you took the trouble to say "average" in the beginning of the sentence.

Mr. Altucher: you have some good ideas, and also some ideas that I don't think are good but are at least defensible. But your posts prove, time and again, that you are more interested in being a contrarian than being open-minded; you are more interested in hyperbole than you are in accuracy; you are more interested in manipulation than you are in information.

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 10:55pm

Thanks for the response. I'm glad you like the ideas. I research everything i write but I can write an entire book in a single post. I'm not interested at all in being a contrarian. Rather, i think we should begin to look at things with open eyes and seek true transformation in many of the ills in society rather than just the band-aids we are attempting.

Ross

September 28, 2011 @ 10:22pm

I really don't understand why the good Freakonomics folks keep giving this guy airtime. His rants are uninformative, poorly reasoned, and lack any significant insight or new ideas. A classic example of blogosphere behavior: write something radical enough and you will get attention no matter how nonsensical it may be.

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 10:57pm

You say they are not new ideas. but they are also radical. I think the reason I get "airtime" is that they provoke such contrary emotions in people.

BL1Y

September 28, 2011 @ 10:24pm

I think not voting is often more patriotic, if done purposefully. If you don't know enough about the candidates, stay home and let people who have done the research have a bigger say.

Also, not voting signals to third parties that a larger portion of the population is up for grabs. However, it would may be more effective to vote for a third party; decreased signal that your vote is up for grabs, but increased signal that you actually vote.

Sometimes I'll just vote by alternating parties. Not liking either of the main parties, I'd rather neither have complete control.

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 11:09pm

Thanks. Interesting about thealternating parties.

JohnS

September 28, 2011 @ 10:30pm

Some of these points directly contradict earlier material published on Freakonomics, such as the claim that college is meaningless - there have been natural experiments that strongly suggest that going to college pays off.

Also, most of these commandments are about pointing out what doesn't work, then suggesting that "getting rid of" that thing will make it work - but without any practical evidence that it will actually make the situation better. It's just a bunch of hand-waving to appease people vaguely upset about the current state of America. As Greg said - its contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. When will Freakonomics stop publishing material from this guy? Frankly, I expect better material from this blog.

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 11:09pm

The stat usually passed around about college is that college graduates have higher salaries 20 years later.

Unfortunately, Statistics 101: selection bias. When smart, aggressive, middle class kids go to college they will have higher salaries 20 years later than the less ambitious kids who chose not to go to college. I have yet to see a real statistic on this matter.

To do the correct test: take 2000 people who are accepted to college this year. Randomly select 1000 of them and say you CAN NEVER go to college. Then see where all oftheir salaries are 20 years from now.

Allen

September 28, 2011 @ 10:31pm

Why do you keep linking stories by this idiot? Is it just to generate traffic? Because there's nothing "freakonomics" about it -- just random unsupported ravings.

Nathan

September 28, 2011 @ 10:40pm

I'm relatively surprised by the dislike of my fellow commenters. Pretty much every one of these points is, at the very least, worth questioning. While the proposed alternatives/solutions aren't exactly thrill worthy, can anyone honestly say that, for example, the current political landscape is actually representative of the people?

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 11:04pm

It's unclear to me why people anonymously post stuff on the internet. I think, in general, it's been a hard decade foreveryone and people who are angry and have been hurt by it use this as an outlet to get that emotion out.

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 11:05pm

but i do notice my posts get far more anonymous facebook likes than hateful negative comments so I'm grateful for that.

Chaz

September 28, 2011 @ 10:42pm

Why the hell do you get up in the morning?

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 11:03pm

Usually when my bladder is full I can't sleep anymore and I get up.

AdamY

September 28, 2011 @ 10:50pm

Nowhere in all that rambling did I see anything resembling a statistic. I actually agreed with some of what you said, but a lot of it just seemed like ranting. At least when other writers on this site make claims I don't agree with they have reasoning to back it up. There is none of that here.

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 11:02pm

Adam, thanks for the question. If you click on the links that support each item I actually give MANY statistics to support the solutions I propose.

Ali S

September 28, 2011 @ 11:00pm

These are the Cold Hard Facts that People are Zombified into.

JA speaks the reality and usually people hate being out on what they have been doing wrong all this time.

Truth Hurts!

James Altucher

September 28, 2011 @ 11:06pm

Thanks Ali, The truth does hurt and many people don't want to face the hard work it takes to undue the brainwashing.

The Hill

September 28, 2011 @ 11:02pm

I'm guessing Greg and Ross are both from the US. What Mr Aultucher says is all fairly obvious looking in from the outside gentlemen.

AndrewB

September 28, 2011 @ 11:18pm

The best part of this post is how the author quickly and without snide comments answers the comments. It would be great if this happened with most of Freakonomic posts, as well as on other blogs. Keep it up Mr. Altrucher.